In the wake of North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, September 3, 2017, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday, September 7, said that China would support the United Nations, UN, taking further measures against North Korea while urging for more dialogue to resolve the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

Wang made this known at a press conference in Beijing. “Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, China agrees that the UN Security Council should respond further by taking necessary measures.

“Any new actions taken by the international community against DPRK should serve the purpose of curbing the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs, while at the same time be conducive to restarting dialogue and consultation” he said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

He continued, “We believe that sanctions and pressure are only half of the key to resolving the issue. The other half is dialogue and negotiation.”

On the other hand, North Korea has said that it would respond to any UN sanctions and international pressure with powerful counter measures. North Korea also accused the U.S. of aiming to start a war. “We will respond to the barbaric plotting around sanctions and pressure by the United States with powerful counter measures of our own,” North Korea said in a statement by its delegation to an economic forum in Vladivostok, Russia’s Far East.

In the meantime, U.S. wants the UN Security Council to subject the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban; to impose embargo on North Korea; ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean labourers abroad, as reported by Reuters.

Earlier, the U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to halt all trade with countries doing business with North Korea. “The U.S. is considering in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea”, he said in a tweet.

Trump also has called on China, North Korea’s main trading partner, to do more to restrain North Korea, which has pursued its weapons programmes in defiance of UN sanctions and international condemnation.